Minutes: October 14, 2009
Village of Plain
Village Board Proceedings of October 14, 2009
The Regular Monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Plain was held at the Municipal Building on October 14, 2009. The meeting was called to order by President Ellenbolt at 7:30 p.m.
Roll Call: Raymond Ellenbolt, President; David Buchanan; Robert Jewell; James Liegel; Duane Meise; Robert Neuheisel; and, Merry Lynn Riek, Trustees.
Others present: Kevin Wilkins, Steve Biggers, Kevin Kraemer, and Nick Ruhland, Public Works Director.
Notice of this meeting, along with the agenda, was posted at the following locations in the Village of Plain: the Municipal Building; the Plain Post Office; and, The Peoples Community Bank on Monday, October 12, 2009. Notice was emailed to the Home News and the Baraboo News Republic on the same date.
Jewell motioned to approve the minutes of the September 9, 2009 Regular board meeting. This was seconded by Neuheisel. Motion carried, Liegel abstained since he did not attend this meeting. Buchanan stated a correction on the minutes of the Special Meeting September 21, 2009, should be USGBC instead of USDBC. Buchanan motioned to approve the minutes with the correction made, seconded by Meise. Motion carried.
Comments from members of the public who have not been scheduled to address the Board.
Steve Biggers wrote a letter to the board and President Ellenbolt stated that he is giving the letter to the Building Committee to make a decision on how to determine a solution for Biggers request regarding building permits and fines from his driveway. The Building Committee will schedule a meeting and inform him when it is so he can attend.
Police Department Report
Officer Kevin Wilkins presented a report from the Spring Green Police Department. Stated that they have reduced hours from the summer, but will probably increase them again during hunting season. They changed their hours so that they are on duty during the morning school time and also morning traffic. Jewell made a motion to move up item #12, regarding Police Contract on the agenda, 2nd by Buchanan. Motion Carried. Neuheisel wanted information regarding emergency situations, would Spring Green be called in the middle of the night. Officer Wilkins stated that Sauk County would be notified and Spring Green would be mutual aid. The dispatcher could be notified to make certain arrangements to contact Spring Green Police Department in case of emergencies in Plain. Sauk County should be responsible in that time of the morning stated Meise. Buchanan asked if officers were getting out of their cars, going into schools and businesses? Office Wilkins said yes, they are out and about in the public. Jewell stated his son brought home football cards that an officer handed out at school. Officer Wilkins said that Spring Green Village President and board are happy to assist Plain, but they are in the middle of the budget and would like to have a 3 month contract signed and when the budget is done to meet and discuss the contract future. Liegel asked if the Spring Green Police Committee is going to the Spring Green Board or is the board going to the committee to make their decision about a contract? Officer Wilkins said it would be his determination, the Village of Plain and the Village of Spring Green to figure out prices for the new contract. Meise made a motion to sign a 3 month contract until January 31, 2010, 2nd by Jewell. Motion carried.
Public Works Department Report
Nick Ruhland: The pool is completed, Badger Pool was here and we should be getting our squirrel delivered soon. They have to paint it yet, Buchanan was concerned with the wet weather if they should paint, Ruhland stated that they will not paint when the air is moist. Storm sewer work along Hwy. 23, by Sauk County, is completed. There were 2 water main breaks on October 7 and 8. Wachter Avenue and Cherry Street, the water went down the sewer main. The Sewer main broke, there was a crack, so don’t know if the dirt collapsed around it or what happened. Meise asked if they were clay tiles and Ruhland said yes. They had to get a vacuum truck to come in to pump out the tanks. There was a water shut off done on Cedar St., on October 1, have been trying to get a hold of owner, but still no contact. Jeremy Kraemer is building a new house and moved the power box from Alliant which took the wiring for the street light. The cost for wiring for the street light is Kraemer responsibility. A letter will be sent to Kraemer to inform him of this.
Committee Reports
Building & Swimming Pool – Buchanan
No Pool Committee Report
The Building Committee – Matt Snow contacted Buchanan regarding fence for back yard. He was told to fill out a new application and the Committee will meet to decide if to issue a new permit.
Police – Meise
No Police Committee Report.
Golf & Parks – Neuheisel
No Parks Committee Report
No Golf Course Committee Report.
Finance & Library Liaison – Riek
The Finance Committee – A Finance Committee meeting is scheduled for October 28, 2009 at 6:15 p.m. regarding 2010 budget.
The Library Committee – Maureen Palmer attended a Long Range Planning conference on Oct. 6. They are planning on having an “After School Read Program” with a dog. It has been proven that children that have reading difficulties or not outgoing with other kids, that when they can sit and reading out loud to the dog has helped them. Joanne Holston has the dog and is insured by $1,000,000 in case the dog bites or scratch. Maureen Palmer is getting that set up and everyone seems very excited. There will be 15 minute blocks so appointments will be necessary. There will be no cost. They are just starting this so there is no time schedule yet. Pie, Pages and Performances this week-end.
Water & Sewer – Liegel – No Report, but would like to state that while Nick Ruhland was gone last week, John Ruhland did a really good job with all the main breaks that happened. We have reduced our pumpage and water treating 10-15% that is going to save a lot on our plant in the future.
Water Pumpage for September:
Well No. 1: 614,000
Well No. 2: 2,068,000
Total for September: 2,812,000 gallons, which was 130,000 gallons less than last year.
Two bacteria samples were sent to the State Lab. Both samples tested safe.
Monthly fluoride average: 1.21 p.p.m.
Wastewater Report for September:
Influent Monthly Average B.O.D.: 162 mg/l
Effluent Monthly Average B.O.D.: 5 Limit: 15 mg/l
Influent Monthly Average T.S.S.: 227 mg/l
Effluent Monthly Average T.S.S.: 9 Limit: 20 mg/l
Monthly Average Nitrogen Ammonia: .157 mg/l
Limit: 20.0 mg/l Monthly
29.0 mg/l Daily
Total gallons treated: 2,113,700
September 2009 total gallons to plant 3,113,000
Streets & Ordinance – Jewell
The Streets Committee – Ruhland is going to apply for a grant for Nachreiner Ave. for Road Improvement. Cedar Street is completed. The budget for 2010 will remain the same as 2009. Liegel asked for time line for grant, Jewell said it will be 2011. Meise stated there is a complaint that on Cedar St. the blacktop is 1 inch higher than the curb in a driveway. When you plow you will be hitting the blacktop. Liegel said you are not suppose to plow into the street. Meise asked where was the engineer when they were blacktopping? Ruhland said he asked Josh Strake said it was a little high at Jerry Liegel. President Ellenbolt said there will be a walk through that has to be done yet. Meise asked if it will be before we pay and President Ellenbolt said that the invoice is on this agenda to be paid
The Ordinance Committee - Ordinance Meeting was held on October 7 and talked about many things, the sewer situation outside the village limits we are going to wait and have another meeting in January. They will wait about the annexation process or the disconnection process to be determined. Parking for winter parking, put a orange sticker on the antenna to inform them to move their car. Ruhland stated that the police officer applied the sticker. Riek asked if Ruhland had stickers and he said the Clerk has them programmed in her computer. Semi parking on streets there is an ordinance, it not only covers semis, but vehicles that take 2 parking spaces, but at this time we are not going to enforce it so people won’t feel like we are making them move out of town because of this. Buchanan said why have an ordinance if we are not going to enforce it. Over the years we have had meetings and decided not to enforce it. It’s 7.10(4) in the ordinance. We are giving them a place to park why should the village supply that asked Buchanan? Meise said some people have layovers and there has been many discussions before and decided not to enforce it. One hour on certain streets is listed be Jewell. Jewell is afraid we will be chasing people out of town. Biggers stated that if we make it too strict then people will leave and one person has already left. Jewell said we would like to co-exist with everyone, but we are looking for solutions. Other things discussed were solar panels and wind turbines which we need to have someone like Alliant to come and talk to the Committee. A permitting process needs to be in place to control things. Fire pits, unlicensed vehicles, junk vehicles, adult entertainment establishments, noxious weeds were all topics discussed. Noxious weeds are a certain kinds of weeds, Canada thistle, creeping jenny, leafy spurge, field binweed and any other weed that could be stated as noxious through the municipality. Going to have another meeting in January.
Development & Planning - Ellenbolt
Planning on scheduling a Committee Meeting soon.
Hours set for Trick or Treating same as last year, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on October 31, 2009. Motion by Jewell, 2nd by Liegel. Motion Carried.
Jewell made a motion to approve the donation of $100 to River Valley yearbook, 2nd by Neuheisel. Motion Carried. Buchanan voted nay.
Jewell made a motion to approve operator’s license for Erica Enke at I Diehl Tap, 2nd by Meise. Motion Carried.
Jewell made a motion to table the contract for Johnson Block year end audit, the board needs to have more information why the increase from 2009, 2nd by Buchanan. Motion Carried. Liegel voted nay.
President Ellenbolt updated the board regarding the LEED’S building. He had a meeting last week at Vanderwall’s office. A meeting will be scheduled with the schools to pin point of what they should pay. There was a question regarding the user fee. Karna Hanna lead the meeting. It was brought up that there might be a possibility that the county might be able to supply the second person for the administrative manager. The extra property that is annexed is already in the TIF. It was put in at that time just so the TIF would not have to be amended again. The Advisory Committee will meet and bring their information back to the board for the final decision. There are 11 people on the Advisory Committee. Buchanan asked if anyone was taking minutes at the Advisory Committee and Liegel stated that they have not held a meeting yet. President Ellenbolt stated that they will be meeting in the near future and is sure that someone will be taking the minutes and the meetings will be posted for the public to attend. The money will be here within 6-8 weeks, per Gail from Commerce. Buchanan said the board needs to know what’s happening. Jewell asked about the feasibility study and President Ellenbolt said their still working on it.
There was a vote on the new street address for the LEED’s building at the Honey Creek Business Park. The majority vote was for “LEED’S AVENUE”. Motion by Liegel, 2nd by Riek to name the street “LEED’S AVENUE”. Motion Carried. Neuheisel and Meise opposed.
President Ellenbolt asked if the village should go out and mark where the shut-off’s were located along Co. Hwy. B. Ruhland stated that there were no manholes, so he had to have it televised and cleaned. When they started the generator up the air blew the water up out of the three toilets at Ederer’s business. David Ederer came out and informed us, which we were very surprised that it happened. One of their employees cleaned it up. They marked the services and Ederer’s is under the driveway, the others are okay. Ederer’s attorney contacted our attorney stating the Village blew up the toilets and put ruts in the yard and the employees were giggling. President Ellenbolt asked John Ruhland why he didn’t tell him when the incident happened and John Ruhland said he didn’t think it was that important. They were not laughing and the ruts were in the right of way and will be fixed. They have to drive off the road to do their work and they were on the right of way. Meise asked if the deadline was in December and President Ellenbolt said it was December 11, 2009. No one has done anything to put in their septic yet.
President Ellenbolt stated that regarding the street wall, our village attorney talked to the judge, the judge thinks it will be a conflict of interest, since he is married to a resident from Plain. Could we change to Iowa Co., we can’t, we have to have it at Sauk Co., but then we would have to go to Dane Co. to appeal and get a different judge in Sauk Co. It sounds like they are dragging their feet. Doesn’t know if trying to talk to them would help or not. Meise said the wall is in bad shape and someone could get hurt. President Ellenbolt said that we will move forward with this and he is sure that we will win, but it’s just taking time. Liegel said the judge should just excuse himself and they could appoint a different judge. Buchanan said if we try to negotiate the process would take even longer. Riek said if the judge thinks he should not handle the case he should just go to the attorney and excuse himself. Meise said the wall up by the church is really good that Mark Alt did. Meise said to put the wall in and bill the county. We already invested $1800 in the wall and we don’t want to lose. The wall is in the County right of way. President will inform our attorney to keep on going with the case.
The only correspondence we have is from Steve Biggers in which the Building Committee will take care of it.
Review and Audit of Invoices:
A motion to pay the monthly invoices as presented was made by Liegel, adding LaMasney invoice deducting $2000 from total for being a little bit late, but not voucher #11520 to the Bruce Company. The Bruce Company invoice is not the Village’s responsibility. Kraemer thinks it should be part of the project, when they dug up the curb the irrigation was damaged, per Ruhland. If they want to take it up with the contractor they could per Liegel. Meise seconded, and the motion carried unanimously. We will have to send Kraemer Brothers a letter informing them the decision.
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President Ellenbolt stated the voucher # should be #11500, not #11487 as on the agenda. A motion to approve payment to North Central Laboratories in the amount of $1164.36 from the Sewer Replacement Fund by Liegel, 2nd by Jewell. Motion carried.
Buchanan made a motion for a ½ page ad for the Spring Green Chamber of Commerce for 2010, 2nd by Meise. Motion carried. Check on the quarter page ad for the golf course.
President Ellenbolt said they came in under contract. Meise said they were late and land owners couldn’t use driveways for three months. They were late, but the Village also set them back by asking them to delay work during the Three Day Celebration per Liegel. Liegel made a motion to pay Iverson Construction payment #1 in full, 2nd by Meise. Motion carried.
Liegel motioned to adjourn at 9:25 p.m. This was seconded by Jewell, and the motion carried unanimously.
Patricia Leifker
Clerk/Treasurer